History of meditation

The history of meditation is intimately bound up with the religious context within which it was practiced.[25] Even in prehistoric times civilizations used repetitive, rhythmic chants and offerings to appease the gods.[26] Some authors have even suggested the hypothesis that the emergence of the capacity for focused attention, an element of many methods of meditation,[27] may have contributed to the final phases of human biological evolution.[28] Some of the earliest references to meditation are found in the HinduVedas.[25] Wilson translates the most famous Vedic mantra 'Gayatri' thus : "We meditate on that desirable light of the divine Savitri, who influences our pious rites" (Rgveda : Mandala-3, Sukta-62, Rcha-10). Around the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, other forms of meditation developed in Taoist China and Buddhist Nepal.